Behavioral Health Services expansion sparks concerns

PLATTSBURGH — Preliminary plans for a 12,500 square-foot expansion to Behavioral Health Services North (BHSN) were approved by the Town of Plattsburgh Planning Board last week.

The new extension will include additional parking spaces, landscaping, lighting and stormwater management.

But while the expansion will allow the nonprofit to continue offering mental health and addiction recovery services to area residents, some neighbors are concerned about the impact of an expansion on the community.

Theresa Wells purchased her home, which adjoins the property, on Route 22B over 35 years ago.

“When we purchased our home, we looked forward to quiet enjoyment,” she said at a public hearing last week.

When her family first bought the property, the facility was operating as a school, and she had no issues with noise or other disturbances, she said.

“Once they moved in… well.”

Wells said her family now experiences everything from screaming patients to strangers walking on her property, “hitting themselves in the face with their hands.”

“We’re really concerned about this,” she said. “We do not want this expansion to occur.”

Another resident, Julie Quinn LaDue, said the proposed stormwater management plan — a system is being engineered to redirect water South into the state’s drainage along Route 22B — would flood her property.

“I never expected something like this to happen,” she said. “I don’t have the money to counter what they’re doing.”

Mark DeCrescente, an engineer at Engineering Ventures — the firm tasked with technical planning for the expansion — said there would not be any stormwater issues that would impact nearby residents.

“We’re not adding any more water to that ditch,” he said.

Developers are also planning to lower the land elevation and ensure drainage with spillways, according to DeCrescente.

“The groundwater you’re talking about is going to end up in my basement,” LaDue said. “In my flowers.”

Wells added that underground springs and low-draining soil will add to potential complications.

DeCrescente said that all of those things had been taken into consideration during the planning process, and the stormwater basin will be gravel-based to remediate those issues.

“I live on Route 22B,” Sheila Rodeer, another resident, told her neighbors. “I have no drainage issues. You’re making a big deal out of nothing.”

A spokesman for Behavioral Health Services North declined to comment on Monday, citing a lack of specific information regarding the issue.